Many of the victims of the ongoing Syrian civil war who are being treated in Israel are saying the Jewish state should go beyond humanitarian aid and actively enter the conflict.
Speaking to the Ynet news portal, several of the 16 Syrian patients currently being treated at Ziv Medical Center in the northern town of Tsfat (Safed) said they were happy to hear of a recent aerial assault on Syrian forces believed to have been carried out by Israel.
One of the Syrians said that after hearing of a recent Israeli air strike on Syrian army positions he was “quite happy,” insisting that “this move should have been executed a long time ago to help us bring down the terrorist regime in Syria.”
Another patient urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “keep attacking in Syria in order to save the Syrian people from the Assad regime.”
A third young man said that while he had “always thought of Israel as an enemy state,” his point of view changed drastically after being provided medical care by the Jewish state. “Israel is a good country that saves our lives,” he said.
That is very much the sentiment that was expressed to Israel Today when our own reporters visited Rambam Medical Center in Haifa last November (see Israel Today Magazine, December 2013, pages 4–5).
The recent Israeli air strike on Syria referenced by some of the patients at Ziv Medical Center was a direct retaliation for a roadside bomb planted along the border that wounded four Israeli soldiers.
Israel is also believed to be behind a series of aerial strikes over the past two years that targeted advanced Russian military equipment provided to the Syrian regime or missile systems being transferred to Assad’s allies in the Hezbollah terrorist militia.